Saturday, November 28, 2015

Detective Elizabeth Harris has left her job with the NYPD
after her husband is murdered and returns to her home county, Lancaster, PA,
hoping the quieter pace, peace loving Amish peoples who live there will restore
her mind, spirt and soul. Elizabeth’s hopes
are dashed when “an English” (non-Amish) young woman is found dead, barely
clothed, in the barn of an Amish farmer.
The young woman is identified as Jessica Travis who Elizabeth learns,
lives with her single mother in near poverty conditions. When she learns that an Amish girl, Katie
Yoder, has been missing since October and that Jessica, with whom she was very
close, reported her missing, Elizabeth fears the worse, fears that are realized
when the body of a girl washes up on the shore in Maryland. Quickly the Amish community closes ranks and
insists that God’s will has been and will be done and it is not up to them to
judge, but Elizabeth and her colleagues feel differently and begin to suspect
the girls were involved with sex for money and that Katie may have even been
abused as a young child, perhaps by someone in their community. Complicating matters, and the case, for
Elizabeth is Ezra Beiler for whom she feels an instant, intent and mutual
attraction, something impossible to act upon were it not for the fact that Ezra
has been planning on leaving his community for several years. Elizabeth’s boss’s continue to look for an
outsider, though Elizabeth’s gut tells her to look within the community, a
trail she follows even as she is afraid of what she’ll find at the end and
whose lives may be altered, even ruined if she uncovers what she fears is
true. A well-written, well-paced mystery
that accurately portrays life in the Pennsylvania Dutch country with a damaged
heroine who has come home to heal and may find more than she bargained for in
the process. This is the first in a
series that will have readers eager for the next installment.

The Crooked House by Christobel Kent

As a teenager, Alison was known as Esme and lived with her
slightly eccentric family in a dismal house in a dismal town. After the events of an horrific evening, Esme
is the only true survivor and goes to live with an aunt becoming Alison and
living a quiet life, trying to overcome her memories and her past. When her boyfriend invites her to accompany
him to a wedding in the her old town, she comes face to face with not only her
personal recollections but those of a village who hasn’t quite forgotten and
somewhere in the retelling of the tragedy, Alison begins to feel that the
conclusions about that evening which were originally arrived at may be too pat
and that someone in the village still holds the key to what really happened
that night. Deeply disturbing, full of
twists and turns, this suspense thriller offers many layers of each character
as what they know of the events of that fateful night are slowly revealed.

Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin

This delightfully dishy novel perfectly captures the glamour
and glitz of mid-20th century New York, breathing life into such characters as
Truman Capote and William and Babe Paley making them and their friends seem
alive. The novel starts with Capote’s
“swans” as Babe Paley and her crowd where known as, gathering to skewer the now
estranged Capote for revealing all their secrets in his writings, blaming him
for the death of one of their own. The
novel goes back and forth between this meeting during the mid-70’s to the
mid-century as the story of Babe and how she came to be the wife of the
president of CBS unfolds, and how she, and others in her circle became the
close confidant of Truman Capote. While
most of the story is told through the eyes of the swans, there are rare glimpses
into how Capote views the events and relationships and his slow downward spiral
from literary darling to being despised by his dearest friends. Details of the rich and famous, glamourous
parties, gorgeous clothes and likable, real to life characters make this novel
and enjoyable read. Melanie Benjamin has
written another novel full of historical and marvelous, larger than life
characters.

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian

As his brother’s best man, Richard Chapman thinks hosting
Philip’s bachelor party in his suburban Westchester home is safer than a night
on the town of drunken debauchery. With
Richard’s wife Kristin and their daughter are spending the weekend with Kristin’s
mother in Manhattan there will be plenty of time for the party and to clean-up
any mess left over. What Richard doesn’t
expect is that the two strippers his brother’s friend hired are more than
strippers and come with Russian bodyguards, bodyguards that one of the women
kills before the pair run off into the night with the money and the bodyguards’
car. At once, Richard is thrust into the
public eye in a not so good way: his home is a crime scene, precious items he
and Kristin have collected together over their lifetime have been ruined beyond
repair, Richard’s investment banking firm has put him on leave, he has lost the
trust of his wife and daughter and he is being blackmailed by the man who hired
the entertainment for the party. Far
worse than Richard’s situation is one of the girl’s, Alexandra, who is on the
run from the police as well as the men who brought her to America and, if it is
possible, from this life she is leading through none of her own choices. The story alternates between Richard’s story
in the here and now, and Alexandra’s as she relates the events that led her to
this place and time and the despair they each feel of ever having a chance at
redemption for Richard and survival for Alexandra. These two stories deftly juxtaposed against
each other reveal some of the same emotions, shame, fear and guilt, expressed
and felt in much different ways but revealing nonetheless how tightly wound and
held our lives can be. This
heart-pounding thriller is woven into a reflection of how quickly all that we
hold dear, no matter how insignificant it may seem to others, can be lost and
the costs we face in order to regain ourselves.

What She Left by T. R. Richmond

One snowy night in London, twenty-five-year-old journalist
Alice Salmon falls into the river and drowns.
Everyone who knew Alice is shocked, and those closest to her try to make
sense of what happened as she becomes a media darling, the world trying to decide
her death was a tragic accident, a suicide or even murder. Alice’s former professor, anthropologist
Jeremy Cooke has taken an unhealthy interest, bordering on obsessive, interest
in Alice’s death and decides that, being at the end of his academic career, he
will chronicle Alice’s life through the digital footprint, diaries, blogs,
articles she wrote, tweets, Facebook posts and e-mails, perhaps finding meaning
in her death. Alice’s friends and family
are appalled at the temerity of this almost stranger delving into the young
woman’s private life with such bravado, but little by little, Alice is
revealed, as are her friends and family, and even Cooke himself, forming a
different picture of the young woman everyone loved so dearly, a picture that
might shed a different light on her death.
A modern take on the epistolary novel, What
She Left Behind also inserts the observations and opinions of an academic
mind as Cooke draws conclusions from what he finds in Alice’s own words, the
words of others and news stories about her.
As more about Cooke is revealed, his project also becomes something of
an apology, a way to mend past wrongs he may have committed. The intriguing structure of this novel will
draw readers in quickly though quietly and will make them look beyond the Alice
she carefully cultivated to show the world and find the secrets that led to
this young woman’s death.

The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth

Anna isn’t even forty and she is already seeing the signs of
early onset Alzheimer’s and voluntarily agrees to go into an assisted living
facility where she meets Jack, a man also not yet forty who has a disorder that
will cause him to lose his language skills over time. The two are naturally drawn to each other and
eventually, to the horror of Anna’s family, fall in love with each other. Eva has lost almost everything in her
carefully constructed life and takes a job as the cook at the care facility to
try and keep together what is left.
While she is cautious with her own life and heart, Eva recognizes the
love Anna and Jack share and finds an opportunity to help the couple be
together, almost as if this is a way to help reconstruct the life she can no
longer have, but at great cost to her and her daughter. There is a startling authenticity to Anna’s
story as she struggles through the stages of dementia; though an imagined one
for both Hepworth and reader, it feels right.
Eva becomes almost a mirror for Anna as Eva chooses the things that she
will keep and deem important as Anna struggles to find importance in the things
that remain. A tragic event is seen in
retrospect given more depth and layers to all the characters. A story to be held onto long after the final
page is turned.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

In the mid-80’s, Lucy Barton is healing in a Manhattan
hospital after an appendectomy turns into an infection and fever that threatens
her life and brings her estranged mother from Illinois to sit at her bedside
while Lucy’s husband spends most of his time at work and home with their two
young daughters. Lucy is a stranger to
her mother, haunted by the poverty of her childhood, unable to connect with her
mother, missing her daughters, reflecting on her life in New York, feeling
isolated much of the time, watching the AIDS epidemic as it affects someone
close to her without her realizing it until it’s too late. So much of Lucy’s life feels just out of her
grasp, her story an achingly beautiful one as she learns to love, at the same
time seeking forgiveness and finding it within herself to let go and
forgive. Much of the time Lucy’s story
feels familiar and yet we recoil from it as we see ourselves in her or her
mother. A short, densely packed story
with nary a wasted word, this reflection on a woman’s life will resonate with
many readers.

After the day she has had as deputy head teacher at Byron
Academy in London, the last thing Margaret Holloway needs is a dicey drive home
in the ice and snow. She becomes
involved in what comes to be called the worst pileup in London history, feeling
only a little bruised until she realized she is trapped in her car that is
about to blow up. Out of the snowy
swirl, a man pulls her from the wreck, saving her life, and then
disappearing. Margaret knows she’s lucky
to only have minor injuries, but there is something in her subconscious that
gives her no peace. She tracks down the
stranger who saved her life, Maxwell Brown, who is in a coma in hospital with no
apparent family or friends to visit. After Margaret learns Maxwell’s identity,
the story flashes back to 1985 and a little girl called Molly who is kidnapped
on her way to school, kidnapped by a notorious gangster, Big George McLaughlin,
who she finds isn’t as terrible as his reputation is, at least not to her. Awhile her mother searches for Molly,
reporter Angus Campbell is hot on her trail as well, hoping Molly’s story will
be his big break. These three desperate strands
of a story don’t seem to fit together at first, but little by little, things
are revealed, fall into place and a complete picture begins to form. The final scenes in the book tie all the ends
together, though in not too surprising ways, but satisfyingly enough. Redemption isn’t always possible in
everyone’s eyes, though to those whose lives we have helped shaped, it is often
enough. A compelling, propelling story
that explores families in all their various forms and how our memories and
pasts shape our presents and our futures.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

When readers think of the classic Gothic novel, Rebecca and “Last night I dreamt I went
to Manderley again” often comes immediately to mind, but Mary Yellan is every
bit as compelling heroine as the unnamed heroine in Rebecca. Set on the almost
mythic coast of Cornwall, Mary, against warning and foreboding, travels to stay
with her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn never imagining
what evils await her there. When Mary
realizes that Jamaica Inn and her aunt are shadows of their former selves and
that her uncle is possibly at the root of the downfall of both, but she is
determined to make the best of the situation as she recreates a new life for
herself, hoping in the process she might be able to save her aunt. Vivid descriptions of the moors and the town
provide rich settings and larger-than-life characters make this classic one to
be reread and savored from time to time.

The authors of The
Cancer Fighting Kitchen return with a book of powerful ingredients and
recipes to help fight the aging process, but also provides ingredients specific
for the health and support of our bodies’ systems and organs. A list of questions helps readers discover
their “Culinary GPS” to guide them through the recipes that might be most
beneficial to them. Several pages on
FASS (fat, acid, salt and sweet) provide good choices to add each of these
important flavors and ingredients to cooking and expands to include Umami that
adds a certain je nais se quois to foods along with spicy flavors: a short chart
providing six major cuisines and the spices and herbs that are the trademark
flavors for each. Each recipe, from
Costa Rican Black Bean Soup with Sweet Potato to Strawberry, Fennel and Arugula
Salad to protein-building dishes such as Black Cod with Miso-Ginger Glaze and
Good Mood Sardines starts with a few words about the ingredients and what makes
them so healthful and the specific health issues the dish might be helpful
for. And entire chapter lists foods and
their health properties and then a list of symptoms (Stress Reducers, Immune
Boosters, etc.) list the recipes that will support health and wellness. All the recipes are accessible, the
ingredients readily available and the photos delicious looking making this a
cookbook that cooks will reach for time and time again. A comprehensive list of references in the
back of the book provide additional sources if readers want to explore certain
topics in more depth than in these pages.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from theBlogging for Booksprogram in exchange for
this review.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

It’s almost Christmas and Sybil has still not recovered from
being left standing at the altar of her May the 4th Be With You Star Wars themed wedding when her groom
ran away with her twin sister. Sybil has
also had a hard time keeping her mind on work and when she hears one of her
clients received a settlement with a few extra zeros, she is concerned it may
have been an error she made. In a spur
of th4e moment decision, Sybil, dog Basil in tow leaves London one night and
heads to Tindledale, a town that her friend Cher makes sound simply
enchanted. Sybil arrives in the middle
of a snowstorm and finds that not only is Tindledale the cure for her
heartbreak and work troubles, but her knitting obsession may be just the thing
this charming town is in need of. Throw
in a handsome doctor and Sybil has hope for a happy Christmas---unless it turns
out she was the careless employee with her zeros which will definitely put a
wrench in her happily ever after plans.

This is a pleasant, quick read, though there may be a few
too many coincidences for some, but as the first in a projected series, this
sets up Sybil and her newly found life for more episodes. Sybil’s knitting obsession will whet even a
beginner’s appetite to grab some needles and start purling.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

In the small new England coastal town of Granite Point live
three sister Sorrel, Nettie and Patience, with a long history in the community
and with a special gift for growing the most lush flowers, abundant, perfect
vegetables and herbs that transcend their typical growing seasons. Patience also has a special gift, the ability
to put these herbs and flowers together to create tinctures, balms and salves
that have helped soothe, comfort and even heal the community over the
years. The first hint that the lives of
the Sparrow sisters are about to change is the arrival of a new young doctor,
Henry Carlyle. Henr6y and Patience are
drawn to each other with a fervor and energy that frightens each. Henry is skeptical, perhaps even concerned,
about the concoctions Patience creates and the willingness of the community to
use them, at times, in place of more traditional medications. When a tragedy occurs, the town looks to
blame someone and Patience finds herself in the middle of a grieving town. But the town’s anger and accusations harken
back three-hundred-years into the past and in present day Granite Point, the
sisters’ plants begin to wither, the fruit, once so abundant on the trees,
dies, the lobster nets are pulled out of the sea empty and the town begins to fade. It will take the women of the town to rally
around Patience and band together not only to save the sisters, but their
beloved town as well.

His delightful debut novel will appeal to fans of Sarah
Addison Allen with its strong female characters and familial and community
bonds and touches of magic. Granite
Point is vividly depicted to the point of familiarity or even perhaps even a
longing to be there. Patience’s special
gifts are balanced with her temperament to create an interesting and
multi-dimensional character. Much is
revealed about the Sparrow family, but a tantalizing final sentence will spark
imaginations and the possibility of more from the Sparrow in the future.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

When EMTs Jane and Alex arrive at
the scene of a single vehicle accident, the driver appears unharmed but is very
agitated saying someone is after him and just Jane and Alex being near him is
dangerous for them. They manage to get
him to the hospital from where he disappears before he has a chance to be
evaluated. Later that same day, Jane and
Alex are called to a train station where a man is dead under a train, the man
who Jane and Alex coaxed out of the car just hours earlier. Detective Ella Marconi isn’t sure whether
Marko Meixner fell onto the tracks during the melee after a smoke bomb, whether
he jumped or if he was pushed on purpose.
In spite of his paranoid behavior earlier in the day, or perhaps because
of it, Jane doubts suicide and Ella agrees; as she investigates Marko’s life,
especially in the past few months, Ella uncovers some very strange clues and
behaviors that don’t quite add up to murder but make her convinced that Marko’s
death was anything but suicide. While
Ella, without the full support of her superiors, continues to investigate
Marko’s death, single-father Alex’s teenage daughter disappears into the night,
a disappearance that forces startling revelations. The twisty plot is enough to keep reader’s
engaged, but the relationship problems Ella and Jane are working through, along
with Alex’s troubles, add layers to both the plot and characters making for an
enjoyable read with several surprises along the way.

Twenty-two year old Bibi Blair has one novel under her belt
and is an ascending star when she is given a diagnosis that she has no more
than a year to live. Diagnosed with an
aggressive form of brain cancer, Bibi refuses to believe she will die so soon
and challenges doctors that she will be cured.
Two days later it appears she is, but Bibi wonders why she has been so
miraculously spared until she learns that she has been given a mission to save
a young woman named Ashley Bell. First,
however, she must find Ashley Bell, a task that puts Bibi’s life, and the lives
of her family, and Ashley Bell’s life in jeopardy. Bibi finds herself running through Southern
California staying one step ahead of cult leaders and gangsters and at least
two steps behind Ashley Bell. Soon,
though, Bibi’s investigation takes on a strange twist and she finds herself in
a twisty maze that is both familiar and unknown at the same time. With ingenious plotting and surprises around
every corner, this novel has all of Dean Koontz signature style with an
entirely new feel and plot. Even if
you’ve never read Dean Koontz before, be sure not to miss Ashley Bell; new readers and longtime fans are in for an entirely unexpected treat.

Build a Better World

The 11th Annual Adult Summer Reading Club has come to a close.

The club's 157 members have read a total of 1,515 books!

Thank you, all, for your enthusiastic participation.

Quote to Inspire

"Fiction, imaginative work that is, is not dropped like a pebble upon the ground, as science may be; fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners."~Virginia Woolf

11th Annual

To see a larger image of this graph, look through the member reviews. It will usually be posted on Friday afternoons.

How to Use this Blog:

To post a review for a book, please submit it via the "Finished a Book" link from the club's webpage: http://www.hclibrary.us/asrc.htm.

Because all posts & comments must be approved by the library, and because the librarians sometimes take summer vacations too, there will be a delay before you see your submission on the blog. Please be patient; your review will appear.